WBMT.....What baffled me today

nilagin said:
As I said, the intention to raise womens retirement age was announced in 1995. I was only in my early 30's at the time, so not really of much interest to me but I certainly remember another announcement/reminder being made probably 15-20yrs ago about the womens age being brought in line with mens retirement age. So how your wife was unaware I don't know.
I really can't see the problem with women having to wait until the same age as men before getting state pension. Why should it be lower?
I have over 40yrs of contributions so far and it will be over 50yrs by the time I get to 67, so other than the fact your wife has paid over 35yrs which gives her a maximum entitlement pension, why should she or any other woman for that matter get to claim hers at 60 rather than what was 65 for me, now stands at 67 and could quite possibly increase to 70 by the time I do retire?
As for your claim i was gloating about the woman in my example, if you care to read it again, I was pointing out she will be worse off financially than she is now, she just hasn't twigged that her income is going to halve as soon as she retires.

That woman would be paying in less than £50 a week in NI contributions from her min wage 50hr week and if she has paid in 35yrs, she would get full entitlement. If she was allowed to retire at 60, explain how that is fair compared to me having to work until 65 as it was when I started, so, 49yrs contributions which average at just short of £90 a week and I would get the exact same state pension payment.
If womens retirement age had always been equal there probably wouldn't have been a need to increase it beyond 65.

There was another woman moaning about having to work past 60, she said she is now 62 and has been paying 40% tax for years, but now she has to work on till 66 before getting her state pension. If she is 62, she can retire at anytime she likes, she could have done so, 4yrs ago as if she is on that sort of money, she should have a private or company pension and if she is that desperate for £168 a week she could get herself a part time job for a few hours a day or week.
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It's fair that women who were due to retire at 60 do retire at 60 and men who were due to retire at 65 also retire at 65, that was the "contract" we all "signed up to", as that was what they were told when they started work, in the same way men were told 65 when they started work. If you entered into any contract and wanted to change it half way along because you didn't like the terms it would be "hard luck that's what you agreed to" unless you agreed MUTUALLY to the change.
A much fairer system would have been to allow anyone that was born in a certain period that was supposed to work until 60 (or 65 in a man's case) to retire at said age but on a reduced pension or choose to hang on to full retirement age. This is nothing more than a hope that some of these people will die before they get any state pension.
 
In 1995 my wife was made aware by her trade union that the retirement age was being increased progressively to 65 from 60. She was never told directly by the UK Government, although she was aware it was happening because she took it upon herself to find out more. In her case because of her age she was able to retire at 62 on full state pension.

Anyone who bothered to keep abreast of the news in 1995 should have been aware too, but in my opinion the Government were changing the terms & conditions of the 'contract' it had with its citizens and should have told everyone by letter.

In my case, I retired the first time at 50 with a company pension, again at 62 (I got bored & went back to work) with a local government pension, finally receiving my state pension at 65.
 
I have for many years considered the state pension to be just another example of our ill thought out social welfare system, even though I am one of those who has benefited from it. People retiring who have paid off a mortgage on their home are in a vastly better position than people retiring who are renting their home. In our case our net income has nearly doubled because we live rent free and have re-invested our capital.

If we were living up to the principles of the Atlee government the pension would seek to place all retirees on an equal footing and logically would be means tested. I see no reason why people who have served this country for many decades but were never paid enough to buy a house should be worse off than I am. All our pensioners deserve a comfortable retirement.

Older people talking in Sidmouth park P1010182.JPG
 
broc said:
In 1995 my wife was made aware by her trade union that the retirement age was being increased progressively to 65 from 60. She was never told directly by the UK Government,

Anyone who bothered to keep abreast of the news in 1995 should have been aware too, but in my opinion the Government were changing the terms & conditions of the 'contract' it had with its citizens and should have told everyone by letter.
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Exactly, my wife's union never told her and the Govt were very selective on how the information was distributed. As often the case, hidden on day 2 of the budget.
 
MatBin said:
It's fair that women who were due to retire at 60 do retire at 60 and men who were due to retire at 65 also retire at 65, that was the "contract" we all "signed up to", as that was what they were told when they started work, in the same way men were told 65 when they started work. If you entered into any contract and wanted to change it half way along because you didn't like the terms it would be "hard luck that's what you agreed to" unless you agreed MUTUALLY to the change.
A much fairer system would have been to allow anyone that was born in a certain period that was supposed to work until 60 (or 65 in a man's case) to retire at said age but on a reduced pension or choose to hang on to full retirement age. This is nothing more than a hope that some of these people will die before they get any state pension.
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According to national statistics the average lifespan of uk women is 82.9yrs whilst for men it is 79.2.
So not only is the average person going to see retirement, but women in the past have had it good for being able to not only get their pension earlier but also for longer. So if anyone's to blame it is women themselves and about time it was equalised.
 
Can I request you stop.
 
srichards said:
There's a lot of roads locally that are marked with right hand lane for straight on or right and left hand lane as left only. They aren't always consistent either.
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There’s one road I travelled down not long ago that had confusing layouts. Four lane road (two lanes in either direction, no dividing barrier), 30mph, couple of sets of traffic light controlled cross roads.

First junction: left lane to turn left only, right lane to go straight ahead or turn right.

Second junction: left lane to turn left or go ahead, right lane to turn right only.

No signs to indicate this, other than road markings. Which were not visible in daytime traffic.

You’d only know if you were local. Which I wasn’t.
 
A couple or so weeks ago, I was in a certain garden center allegedly run by a certain house elf.

I knew that I needed "plant food" so I grabbed a what I wanted while I remembered.
It even had 50% free (y)

I put it away in the garage, as I didn't need it immediately.
Today I got it out to mix some, for my baby trees.
When I opened it, it was half empty!

WTF! Obviously the receipt is long gone and how could I prove I hadn't used any in the last couple of weeks or so?

Its getting thrown away, I've no idea if its been tampered with, Bonsai's are far too valuable to risk on 6 odd quids worth of fertiliser ....
 
Cobra said:
A couple or so weeks ago, I was in a certain garden center allegedly run by a certain house elf.

I knew that I needed "plant food" so I grabbed a what I wanted while I remembered.
It even had 50% free (y)

I put it away in the garage, as I didn't need it immediately.
Today I got it out to mix some, for my baby trees.
When I opened it, it was half empty!

WTF! Obviously the receipt is long gone and how could I prove I hadn't used any in the last couple of weeks or so?

Its getting thrown away, I've no idea if its been tampered with, Bonsai's are far too valuable to risk on 6 odd quids worth of fertiliser ....
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Don't know what you are moaning about .... you still had the 50% you paid for! ;)
 
WBMT?

Sitting here in my "man cave" overlooking the road and foot paths ( one either side of the road)
I'm baffled by the amount of people that actually have push bikes around here, and their keenness to ride them this week :D
 
Last time we were out on real roads, there were 3 large, tight groups (6+ bikes) causing long queues. It's an A road with few safe passing places and they weren't letting people past at laybys. Nipped over the hill to a farm shop for a loaf of bread and a couple of spuds yesterday and a group of 3 MAMIL went past me as I waited in the car while Mrs Nod got the grub.
 
Nod said:
Last time we were out on real roads, there were 3 large, tight groups (6+ bikes) causing long queues. It's an A road with few safe passing places and they weren't letting people past at laybys. Nipped over the hill to a farm shop for a loaf of bread and a couple of spuds yesterday and a group of 3 MAMIL went past me as I waited in the car while Mrs Nod got the grub.
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MAMIL?
 
Cobra said:
I'm baffled by the amount of people that actually have push bikes around here, and their keenness to ride them this week :D
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And also :- Never before in the field of human conflicts have so few dogs been walked by so many ...

( poor dogs I'm sure people are renting them out :D )
 
Cobra said:
And also :- Never before in the field of human conflicts have so few dogs been walked by so many ...

( poor dogs I'm sure people are renting them out :D )
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Apparently in parts of Spain in lockdown people were renting their dogs out so people had an excuse to go out
 
scorpius said:
Apparently in parts of Spain in lockdown people were renting their dogs out so people had an excuse to go out
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Obviously I was joking about "here" but TBH that doesn't surprise me.
 
I've just gone to our pond becasuse my wife saw a frog clamped over the mouth of our goldfish. We cleared the pond of our fish..including 5 orf, 2 years ago but this one must have been hidden on one of the large lily plant pots so we missed seeing it. For those who care for pond fish they went to a very large pond...lake, in a huge garden, a paddock really at the the home of a lady who really cares for her own.They settled in well, I was told. It was an upmarket move for them despite our pond being 19' X 10' Lol.

All that apart, does anyone have any idea why a frog and quite a small one at that, do this ? I have Goggled and one suggestion was the mating urge and as there were no frogs about maybe the fish would do..lol. One suggestion on my Google search to someone asking a similar question was that maybe the frog was hitching a ride as it was clamped to the back of the fish.We've had the pond and the fish and the frogs for years and I've never that happen.

It pushed the frog off with the pond net pole and the fish was fine but went straight into hiding at the bottom by a lily plant pot. We'll keep a close eye now.
 
JohnC6 said:
and one suggestion was the mating urge and as there were no frogs about
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Why does a dog hump a leg / piece of furniture or my granddaughters extremely large toy bear?
Spring is in the air (y)
:D
 
Cobra said:
Spring is in the air
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I remember watching my sister's miniature Schnauzer bitch humping her tomcat. The expression on the cat's face was a study and my camera was upstairs.

The best pictures are always the ones that you missed... :(
 
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